COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – A pair of early goals and a stellar defensive effort proved to be the perfect combination for Colorado College on Sunday afternoon.

Freshman defender Christian Wulff and junior midfielder Alec Martinez scored 2:27 apart to give the Tigers an early lead and CC recorded its second shutout of the weekend with a 3-0 victory over Centenary College at Stewart Field.

Colorado College improved to 3-2-2 overall and climbed above the .500 mark for the first time this season. The Tigers are also tied with Southwestern University atop the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference standings with a 3-0 mark in league play.

Wulff notched his first collegiate goal with a perfectly-timed header off sophomore midfielder’s Ryan Huettel’s corner kick just 5:28 into the contest.

“It feels great to help my team out,” Wulff said about his two-way effort. “Defense is definitely a team effort. We really take it personally. We’re going for the most shutouts.”

A little more than two minutes after Wulff found the net, Martinez corralled a deflected pass from junior defender Alec Sowers and slipped the pall around freshman goalkeeper Austin Andrews for his first tally of the season.

That proved to be more than enough scoring for the Tigers, who remain unbeaten (3-0-2) at home this season.

“We’re undefeated at home and undefeated in the conference,” head coach Horst Richardson said. “The defense, at the moment, is the engine room of the team. We gave up one shot on goal for the entire weekend. That’s pretty good.”

The Gents became the fifth opponent which managed fewer than five shots on goal in a game against CC this year.

“That’s statistically pretty good,” junior defender Andrew Worthington said. “It all comes down to defending as a team and as a unit. It’s not just the defensive corps. It’s all 11 players on the field making sure we limit shots and not letting our opponent break us down.

“We take a lot of pride in controlling the flow of the game, and the last two have been in our favor for the majority of the time.”

Colorado College’s defense allowed only three shots, none of which were on target, while posting its third shutout in seven games.

 

Sophomore Ian Horne was credited with his third career shutout.

Still struggling to score goals, the Colorado College offense is creating plenty of opportunities. Senior forward Brandon Ogilvie hit the post on a direct kick from 15 yards out, and the Centenary keepers made fingertip saves on headers by Ogilvie and Wulff.

Freshman forward Caden MacKenzie added a third goal in the 85th minute, converting on a feed from senior forward Sean Parham who had worked his way around the Centenary defenders outside the right post.

MacKenzie’s blast from 12 yards out on the left side went off Rylan Whan’s hands and inside the far post.

Andrews, who played the first half, and Whan each made a pair of saves for the Gents, who dropped to 0-8-0 overall and 0-3-0 in the SCAC.

The Tigers finished with a 33-3 advantage in total shots and an 11-3 edge in corner kicks.

Colorado College plays a non-conference game against Johnson & Wales in Denver on Wednesday at 3 p.m. League play resumes with contests at Schreiner University and Texas Lutheran University next Friday and Sunday, respectively.